Published on

16 February 2016, 08:52 CET

Mutual value creation

Building Partnerships with Customers, Suppliers and Intellectual Property partners based on mutual value creation is fundamental to the LEGO Group to meet the challenges and complexity brought forward by globalization and digitalization.

Partnerships are essential to compete in today’s marketplace.
Strong partnerships can help companies like the LEGO Group to better address the changing tides of the market, where challenges are amplified by the complexity brought forward by globalization and digitalization. Selecting and managing the right partnerships is critical for the LEGO Group to realize our aspiration and preserve the integrity of our brand in the minds of consumers and shoppers.

In the LEGO Group we co-operate with three main types of business partners:

Customers
This group varies from small local toy specialists to large multi-national retailers that are in touch with a broad group of shoppers and consumers to wholesalers/distributors that act as intermediaries between the LEGO Group and other retail customers. Customers play an important role in delivering the right LEGO brand and product experience to shoppers and consumers. The LEGO Group would seek to build stronger partnerships with customers who share our values and can help the LEGO group meet our aspiration of globalizing and innovating the LEGO system-in-play.

Suppliers
This group covers all sizes of suppliers from many different industries ranging from consultancy firms to utility suppliers and suppliers of raw materials to manufacturing companies that produce elements or even pack final products on behalf of the LEGO Group. Naturally, the LEGO Group would seek to build strong cooperation with suppliers that perform activities that are critical for our continued success. This can either be through direct impact on the brand and product experience or our ability to meet the needs of customers, shoppers and consumers or indirectly through their code of conduct.

Intellectual Property Partners
This group consists of different types of partnerships involving exchange of or collaboration around intellectual property. This can be partnerships where the LEGO Group acts as the licensor allowing a 3rd party company to use the LEGO brand in products (e.g. Kabooki) or it can be partners where the LEGO group acts as the licensee using the intellectual property rights of another company in our products (e.g. Disney Princess). But this can also be partnerships where both parties invest their brand or parts of their intellectual properties in creating consumer experiences or for cross-promotional opportunities (e.g. partnerships with Nickelodeon (transactional), Cartoon Network (Collaborative) or Warner Bros (Strategic)).